Of the different kinds of Insurance or Assurance, as it is indifferently called, Marine Assurance is the oldest, so old, that no one knows when the custom began, as we see by the preamble of 43 Eliz., c. 12 (1601).
“An Acte concerninge matters of Assurances, amongste Marchantes. Whereas it ever hathe bene the Policie of this Realme by all good meanes to comforte and encourage the Merchante, therebie to advance and increase the generall wealthe of the Realme, her Majesties Customes and the strengthe of Shippinge, which Consideration is now the more requisite, because Trade and Traffique is not, at this presente, soe open as at other tymes it hathe bene; and, whereas it hathe bene tyme out of mynde an usage amongste Merchantes, both of this Realme and of forraine Nacyons, when they make any greate adventure (speciallie into remote partes) to give some consideracion of Money to other persons (which commonlie are in noe small number) to have from them assurance made of their Goodes Merchandizes Ships and Things adventured, or some parte thereof, at such rates and in such sorte as the Parties assurers and the Parties assured can agree, whiche course of dealinge is commonly termed a Policie of Assurance; by meanes of whiche Policies of Assurance it comethe to passe, upon the losse or perishinge of any Shippe there followethe not the undoinge of any Man, but the losse lightethe rather easilie upon many, then heavilie upon fewe, and rather upon them that adventure not, then those that doe adventure, whereby all Merchantes, speciallie of the younger sorte, are allured to venture more willinglie and more freelie: And whereas heretofore suche Assurers have used to stand so justlie and preciselie upon their credites, as fewe or no Controversies have risen there upon, and if any have growen, the same have from tyme to tyme bene ended and ordered by certaine grave and discreete Merchantes appointed by the Lord Mayor of the Citie of London, as Men by reason of their experience fitteste to understande, and speedilie to decide those Causes; untill of late yeeres that divers persons have withdrawen themselves from that arbitrarie course, and have soughte to drawe the parties assured to seeke their moneys of everie severall Assurer, by Suites commenced in her Majesties Courtes, to their great charges and delayes: For Remedie wher of be it enacted,” &c.[64]
The Oldest Policy of Assurance I have been able to find is mentioned in the 6th Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS., where it is catalogued “1604. A Charter partie, An Assurance of fish from Newfoundland.”[65]
Mr F. Martin, who wrote an exhaustive book on the History of Lloyd’s and Marine Insurance, says: “The earliest English policy of marine insurance, which we have been able to discover, bears date 1613, and though not a document issued actually by underwriters, but, to all appearances, a copy made for legal purposes, with some lawyer’s notes attached, may be found historically interesting. The discovery was—with others subsequently to be referred to—the result of long and laborious researches among the, as yet, only partly known literary treasures of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The original is among the Tanner manuscripts, numbered 74, fo. 32, and the manuscript is endorsed, ‘Mr Morris Abbott’s pollesye of Assurance dated the 15 of ffebruary 1613, 11 Jacobi.’”
A very old policy hangs, framed and glazed, on the wall of the Committee Room at Lloyds, dated 20th Jan. 1680, and it is for £1200—£200 on the ship and £1000 on the goods. The ship was the Golden Fleece, the voyage from Lisbon to Venice, and the premium was £4 per cent.!
Underwriting marine risks was in private hands, and although the underwriters had, some of them, offices of their own, most of the business seems to have been done at Coffee Houses, such as Hain’s, Garraway’s, or Good’s; and there was also a central office at the Royal Exchange, as is shown by several early advertisements, one of which is the following, from the City Mercury, No. 255 (1680):
“Whereas Mr Daniel Parrot caused a Politie to be made Septemb. 28 last, on the Charles of Plymouth, from Newfoundland to Cadiz, which is subscribed by several Insurers, and the Politie lost, and a new Politie made: It is desired that all persons that have subscribed the Politie would come into the Insurance Office, and subscribe the new Politie, that it may be known who the Insurers are; and if any one has found the old Politie, they are desired to bring it to Mr Tho. Astley, at the Insurance Office on the Royal Exchange, and they shall be well rewarded.”
The origin of the present Corporation of Lloyd’s was in the Coffee House of Edward Lloyd, who, in 1688, lived in the very busy commercial thoroughfare of Tower Street, as appears from an advertisement in the London Gazette of 18/21 Feb. 1688, relating to a robbery. In 1691 or 1692 he moved to a more central situation, at the Corner of Abchurch Lane and Lombard Street, where, in the summer of 1696, he started the famous Lloyd’s News, of which the Bodleian Library has a complete set, with the exception of the first seven numbers. It only reached seventy-six numbers, when it was discontinued for the reason given in No. 138 of the Protestant Mercury, Feb. 24/26, 1696 (1697). “Whereas, in Lloyd’s News of the 23rd instant, it was inserted, That the House of Lords Received a Petition from the Quakers, that they may be freed from all Offices, which being groundless and a mistake, he was desired to rectifie it in his next: But return’d for Answer, it was added by the Printer, that he would Print no more at present.” And it remained in abeyance till 1726, when it was resuscitated under the title of Lloyd’s List, a name which it now bears.
Lloyd’s Coffee House served its purpose to the Underwriters for a time, but they found it inconvenient, and wanted a place of their own, so they took rooms in Pope’s Head Alley, which they called New Lloyd’s Coffee House, whilst they were looking out for suitable permanent premises. Here, towards the end of 1771, seventy-nine Underwriters met, and each subscribed £100 towards building a “New Lloyd’s.” After a considerable amount of house hunting, it was reported by the Committee, on Nov. 24, 1773, “that after many fruitless researches to obtain a Coffee House in Freeman’s Court and other places, they had succeeded with the Mercer’s Company for a very roomy and convenient place over the North West Side of the Royal Exchange, at the rent of £180 per annum”: and this selection being approved of, they moved into their new quarters on 5th March 1774. There they have abode ever since, except for a brief period when the Exchange was re-building after its destruction by fire in 1838.
The underwriters did not always confine themselves to marine risks. Malcolm, writing in 1808, says: “The practice of betting is tolerably prevalent at present, and by no means confined to any particular class of the community. In fact, I am afraid it might be traced very far back in the history of our Customs; but it will be sufficient, for the information of the reader, that I present him with an article from the London Chronicle of 1768, which, I think, will remind him of some recent transactions in the City.